The Harmony of Maple World
by Abyss Wolf Welsh
Summary: Lotus manages to get her body back from Gelimer, but with a horrifying secret. In the midst of her fear and sorrow, Luminous, the hero's, and some new friends step in to save her, but can Luminous build a bond strong enough to out weigh Lotus's distrust, or will everything fall apart between them?
1. Chapter 1

**Lotus and Orchid where originalz1ly supposed to twin sisters, Nexon changed that later on though, this story is based on the original idea of them both being female. I do not own Maplestory or any of the characters in the game itself, all original property belongs to Nexon. Only my own OC characters belong to me.**

_Chapter 1: Lonliness_

Lotus sat silently on top of the Goddess statue at the Temple of Time, watching Pink Bean scurry about bellow her, though her thoughts were in another place. Lotus had overheard from travelers what Gelimer had done to Orchid, but she was at a loss on how to feel about it. It scared her, it made her angry too, but there was one thing Lotus knew for certain; it was the first time in hundreds of years, that anything had made her feel powerless and pathetic.

_"How could I have let this happen? The one time Orca really needed me and I'm stuck in this state..." _Lotus sighed and shook her head, she was so mixed up inside. It felt like she was stuck in an endless whirlpool of anger, fear, sadness, and regret, it was as if there wasn't a thing for her to feel happiness over anymore.

She knew that Orchid wasn't dead, but something still made her hateful thinking about it. Lotus clenched her fist and scowled, _"As if that crazy old coot could actually kill Orca" _Lotus trembled thinking about how Gelimer, using her own body, had attack and left Orchid for dead, _"For him to use such a cheap trick to gain an advantage over Orchid..." _Lotus was deeply upset by this, but there was nothing she could do about it now, that was all over long since nights passed.

_"What am I going to do now? Should I just swallow my fear and look for Orca, or..." _Her though process was disrupted when a maple leaf blew right through her, she looked down at her hands, remembering she was bodiless, and that Orchid probably couldn't see her, or if Orchid would even want to after all this. _"Maybe I'm like Von's wife now...? He can't see his wife any longer even though she's always with him... Maybe Orca too..." _She signed, hanging her head, on the brink of tears. _"What did I ever do to deserve this..." _Lotus quietly got up and stared out into the sunset, watching the wind blow leaves around her.

_"The only one who seems to be able to see me is that damn eyesore Phantom" _Lotus clenched her fist thinking about him, he was the reason she was in this state to begin with, _"He probably didn't love Aria anyway. I mean, he hits on anything that moves... who would ever believe he _**_actually_**_** l**__oved her?"_

Lotus shook her head and started to walk, _"I think about the past far to much I guess..." _Lotus reached the opening of the old Temple and started searching through her cloak pockets, pulling out a Teleportation rock, setting her destination for the forest near Elluel. It was always peaceful there, the beauty of the forest was enough to wash away any negative emotions, making it easy to put her troubled mind and heart at ease.

Lotus wasn't especially worried about Mercedes either, for from what she could tell, the elven queen couldn't even see her. This allowed Lotus to relax even more, knowing that she was safe and could take it easy on the outskirts of the elven kingdom. Passing along the usual route up towards the waterfall cave where she had been staying, Lotus noticed something sticking up out of a muddy patch of ground, she bent down and slowly pulled the object from the earth, careful not to damage it. Lotus gently wiped the mud off the object's surface, _"This is... a book?" _Lotus took a small cloth out of her cloak and continued to delicately scrub the mud off the book as she continued walking. The book was very old, it's pages worn and faded from the weather and earth, Lotus looked at the book admiringly, thinking about how long the book must have been buried there before the rain had uncovered enough earth to find it, _"Wow, this thing must be older then Arkarium is!" _Lotus lightly laughed at the thought as she looked up realizing she had reached the top of the waterfall already. She gently placed the book into her cloak pocket and slowly made her way down to a narrow ledge and into a cave that was hidden by the waterfall. Finding let alone entering the cave would have been extremely dangerous to most, but as a ghost the waterfall and ledge didn't even phase Lotus, since she couldn't be hurt by such things any longer.

Lotus walked to a far corner of the cave, setting a candle on fire and sitting down near a large stone table, gently taking the book out of her cloak pocket. Lotus held the book while carefully inspecting the cover, the book title was written in ancient symbols, with a fine golden ink. Many different symbols and pictures covered the pages inside, written in golden or light blue inks. Lotus carefully brushed her hand over the page's contents, the text was very finely written, and the pictures beautifully drawn, but the text was unreadable to her. She didn't understand the ancient symbols that were used, they where something she had never seen before.

"_Ok... now I KNOW this book is older then Arkarium..."_ Lotus closed the book and set it on the stone table, _"I wonder where it came from... and who wrote it?" _Lotus got up from the table and walked to the entrance of the cave, leaning up against the cave's mouth. The waterfall was so tall, it overlooked most of the forest, you could even see the Elven kingdom from it. Lotus closed her eyes as a sweet breeze blew past her and into the vast, fading sunset. She began to sing softly as she felt the last of the sun's warmth disappearing over the horizon.

"_****You are the dawn of a new day that's waking,****_

_****a masterpiece still in the making, the blue in an ocean of grey****__**..."**_

Lotus fell to her knees, crying softly as a final breeze swept past the cave with a cold chill announcing night had officially risen. She sat watching the first star of the evening sparkle brightly in the distance, "_Please... Let her be safe ad happy, where ever she ended up..."_


	2. Chp1 Pg2

_**[ Somewhere near Edelstein ]**_

Xenon, Roo-D, and Luminous scanned through the crowds at Free Market looking for Aran. _"Claudine said he made it here... where is he?" _Roo-D was perched on Xenon's head trying to see above the crowd while Xenon watched the people passing around him as they walked. _"I'm not sure Roo-D... I've lost sight of Luminous to, it's just too crowded here." _Xenon patiently paced through the crowds of annoyed and screaming customers to reach the entrance gate. Twice someone grabbed him aside and yelled at him for cutting in line, and once he lost Roo-D, who after almost 30 minutes of searching for, was found being placed on auction at a pet dealer's store. Xenon had to pay a hefty eighty-million mesos to retrieve his stolen friend before once again trying to make it back towards the entrance gate. _"I hope Luminous is having better luck then we are..."_ Xenon sighed, looking down at Roo-D, who he was now carrying in his arms.

Luminous was searching deeper into the market, looking through every line to find Aran. _"Why didn't they send Evan with us? He has Mir with him, he could just fly above the crowds."_ Luminous huffed, coming to the end of a line of stands before spotting one farther off into the distance that was on the side by itself, there was a young male with white hair standing at the counter paying for some items he bought. _"There he is, I'll yell at him big time for this!" _Luminous growled, tightening his grip on the staff he carried, and broke almost into a full-run, he flew past the remaining market stands, scattering the crowds around him. _**"ARAN!"**_ Luminous yelled at the boy as he approached ever faster, startling the boy so much that he almost fell over. The boy caught his balance and quickly turned to face Luminous, who was now slowing to a walking pace, face bright red with anger, The boy stood dumbfounded, staring at Luminous with a mixture of curiosity and fear crossing his face, Luminous pounded his staff against the ground angrily and opened his mouth to yell again before suddenly going pale. The store clerk and the boy gave one another a worried glance before the clerk bent down and grabbed a First-Aid Kit from his cabinet while the boy quickly rushed over to Luminous and grabbed his hand, slightly squeezing it,_ "Are you ok mister? Do you hurt anywhere?"_ the boy was frantically searching Luminous's face for any sign of reaction. Luminous took a light step away from the boy and made a slight laugh,_ "Sorry about that... you're not who I thought you were."_

The boy's face light up and he gave Luminous a warm smile, extending an arm towards him. _"Well, it's nice to meet you anyways stranger, my name is Leo!"_ Luminous was slightly shocked by the sudden gesture, but he shook hands with Leo and they spent the entire trip towards the entrance gate talking about their pasts and laughing. _"And so, Afrien threatened to bite phantom if he didn't shut up for the rest of the trip." "Haha, I think they were probably good traveling companions... Thats so cool though, that your one of the legendary heroes!"_ Leo was happily listening to Luminous's stories about the past, _"I wish I could have known them... especially the Onyx dragon, my grandpa used to tell me about them when I was little, he told some amazing stories... about you guys too!"_ The two turned the final row of marketing stands before the entrance gate came into view, where Xenon and Roo-D patiently awaited Luminous's return. _"OH! I think I see Luminous Xenon! And... he's with someone? It's not Aran though..."_ Roo-D jumped out of Xenon's lap and raced down the hillside, leaping at Luminous as soon as he was close enough. Luminous went tumbling a ways down the hill when Roo-D tackled him, _"Woah! I... I wasn't expecting that!"_ Luminous laughed picking up the tiny robot creature and getting up off the ground _"Roo-D! Why did you do that?"_ Xenon yelled from the top as he watched Leo run back down towards Luminous to see if he was alright._ "It's fine Xenon, no harm done." _Luminous gave a light smile as he carefully walked up towards Xenon, handing Roo-D back to his friend._ "I'm sorry Xenon... I was just happy to see him again"_ Roo-D lowered his head as Xenon took him from Luminous, Xenon gave a light laugh and hugged his friend tightly "_It's ok he said, all's well Roo-D."_


End file.
